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Advancing the state of the art of ignition systems for lean-burn stationary natural gas fueled engines is critical to meeting increased performance requirements. Severely reduced spark plug performance and durability is an unfortunate consequence as engines are simultaneously being pushed to higher power densities and leaner stoichiometry in order to improve efficiency. In order to offset power density losses due to leaner operation high turbo charger boost is used to increase in-cylinder pressure at time of combustion. Fuel lean and high pressure conditions require significant increases in ignition energy to ignite these mixtures when using conventional spark plug technology. Providing the necessary spark energy to operate these engines significantly reduces the service life of present-day spark plugs. The lack of durable spark plugs is a limiting factor in the further development of high efficiency lean burn natural gas reciprocating engines. NETL is working with the DOE-NETL, Natural Gas Infrastructure program and DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency, Advanced Reciprocating Engine Systems (ARES) program with the goal of developing a laser based ignition system. In laser spark ignition, high rates of energetic photons are focused to a point to create a plasma breakdown. Such laser-induced sparks can create instantaneous temperatures and pressures approaching 105 K and 103 atm, respectively with a sudden release of large quantities of reactive and excited chemical species. The laser spark can be positioned at a considerable distance from cylinder boundaries thus eliminating distortions due to wall effects and flame kernel heat loss common in spark plugs. These extreme local conditions relative to the surrounding gas give rise to rapid, supersonic expansion and dissipation of energy leading to ignition even under conditions that would be unignitable for a typical spark ignition system. NETL is currently working to compare a laser spark ignition system with a convention
Your Price $195.00
List Price $195.00